Day 267: Welcome to the Chum Bucket

I love SpongeBob. It's proof that narrative doesn't have to take a back seat just because you've decided to make a story full of whimsical characters and silliness. Take for example what I think is the most relatable episode in the entire series, 'Welcome to the Chum Bucket.' In this episode, Plankton wins SpongeBob's contract in a poker game with his rival Mr. Krabs, effectively stealing his coveted Krabby Patty secret formula by getting the second best thing: the person who makes the Patties. By the way, the secret formula has got to be one of the best MacGuffins of all time, right? It features in like every other episode. Anyway, after SpongeBob is dragged off to the Chum Bucket, he's confronted with a soul sucking workplace, summing up his thoughts with this great line:

"The sign says kitchen, but my heart says jail."

SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs proceed to sing a bluesy show tune about their separation, with Mr. Krabs doing an excellent Louis Armstrong impression. Like I said, there's no shortness of whimsy here, even when SpongeBob has been sold away to Mr. Krab's corporate competition as if he were an indebted sharecropper ...

SpongeBob's abject misery prevents him from being an effective worker, even though he's really trying to please at first. While Plankton's immediate solution to the problem is to put SpongeBob in a robot body (which he has already threatened to do if SpongeBob won't make the Patties) Plankton's computer wife Karen tells him that the obvious solution to the problem is to show some compassion and understanding to motivate SpongeBob. The only real compassionate action of course would be to let Spongebob go back to the Krusty Krab though, a point made immediately when Plankton claims he can show some compassion and SpongeBob says, 'Great, I'll just head on back to the Krusty Krab then!' to which Plankton replies 'Hold on now, let's not get ahead of ourselves here.'

Even after Plankton shows his most compassionate and understanding side by doing whatever else SpongeBob asks, the inauthenticity of his actions leads SpongeBob to exploit Plankton's fake kindness for his own selfish gain. He becomes a lazy and demanding employee, the opposite of what Plankton wanted. After getting fed up and choosing the nuclear option of putting SpongeBob's brain into a robot to force him to work, he discovers the true lesson of the episode, which is that turning your employees into robots doesn't actually change their hearts and minds. SpongeBob still refuses to do any work, and in fact gets even worse because now there is nothing to threaten him with.

In the end, SpongeBob's cold indifference cracks Plankton's resolve and he goes running back to Krabs, begging him to take 'the yellow terror' off his hands. Krabs does so, but only after screwing him out of another fifty bucks. Plankton is so happy with this deal that he admits he cheated in the poker game anyway. SpongeBob is happy to be back at the Krusty Krab and to have his body returned, but when he cracks a joke about not working anymore, it falls flat with Mr. Krabs. He then immediately gets back to work twice as hard. Why? Because he actually likes his job at the Krusty Krab and doesn't want to lose it.

It's a great lesson swaddled in hilarity and bright colors. I could easily see this episode being taken in a different and incredibly dark direction by any other show, book, or movie, but that's not what SpongeBob is about. Learning a hard lesson doesn't have to destroy your whimsy or ruin all the fun in life, even if it makes you sad at the time. I'm not sure any other media has ever captured that moral as well as SpongeBob could.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley